After four Grand Slam events last winter and poor weather disrupting the ATP finals, we eventually got our two finalists last Saturday, playing at Walsall Tennis Club’s Finals day.

Seventeen Players had taken part, and over the summer the Top 8 Competed in the knock out stages. The results are featured right>>>>

Dudley -3, Paul -3, Rhiannon +2, Anthony -1, Emman +1, Tim -1, N.Addo -1 and N.Allen -1 played off these handicaps in first to seven points tie break sets. The format was now first to 4 sets.

Some close games saw Dudley, Tim, Paul and Emman advance to Semi Finals, before Emman eliminated favourite Dudley 4-1 having improved over the summer. Paul Maguire breezed past Tim to face Emmanuel Omodeni in the Final.

Paul took control winning the first set, next set went to deciding point which Emmanuel took in what was a must win set for him. Emman also took the next two sets capitalizing on a couple of untimely double faults from Paul. With Emman just one set away, Paul rallied well to put some pressure on and comfortably won the fifth set. However unforced errors from Paul early on gave Emman a massive lead that even Harry Houdini couldn’t find a way out of as Emmanuel took the brand new Silver plate and £50 Cash Prize. Congratulations to Emman and unlucky Paul, I’m sure he will have gained valuable lessons in the final and bounce back this Winter in the new Grand Slam season. Whilst Emman will have to defend his crown off a tougher handicap.

Grand slam dates will be announced tomorrow as well as the increased prize money. Well done to everyone who competed in the first ever On The Edge Tennis Grand Slam of Handicap Singles.

After 4 superbly, hard fought Grand Slam Handicap Singles events and 274 tie break matches played we now know our 4 qualifiers for the £50 plus trophy, Main event at next weeks ATP finals. We also know our 4 very classy support acts playing for 5th position and £10 prize to make next weeks final event a fantastic spectacle. Read on to find out the deserving players and details of next Sundays Grand Finale to a truly Superb series of tournaments, but first you may want to catch your breath as you find out how our biggest field so far got on at the final US Open event yesterday.

So Sunday just gone, in the final race to Qualify we had a huge 12 man field including Rhiannon, still in 2nd place looking to hold on to a top 4 finish. We started at 2pm and played right through to the final at 5pm with no breaks featuring 84 Tie breaks. We had one new debutant hoping to make top 8 with a 2nd or 1st place finish, Luke and we had Paul return to attempt to keep Tim and Emmanuel at bay. Already qualified Dudley looking for a few more ranking points to secure 1st position after 3 semi final appearances including French Open title.

Below is how the players fared in the mammoth group stages including the handicaps they played off in each match in the race to 7 points matches. Most wins determines group placing, then if tied total points won and then as we needed in one case if also tied then it goes on head to head result.

In the tightest group ever, can’t believe 5 wins is not enough to get into top 8 for the Quarters, Luke as newcomer is firm favourite only dropping 2 points from an incredible maximum of 77 points, Wimbledon winner Emman had a nightmare and must hope certain people fail in the quarters to save any hopes of a top 4 finish in the Leaderboard!

After the sums were added and a quick 10 minute break the quarters finals were announced as follows, for the best of three tie breaks format for all knock-out matches with handicaps staying the same.

So after a gruelling day we have our 2 new finalists making it 8 out of 8 unique finalists showing what a great leveller this Handicap event has been (credit to the organiser). Both Paul and Ant realise they have done enough to get top 4 place in ATP finals, but both desperate to be called the US Open Grand Slam winner. Anthony is the fresher after 2 straightforward victories compared to Paul ‘living on the edge’ scraping through two long 3 setters, the crowd watches with anticipation for a new champ to be crowned.

FINAL

8th ANTHONY BOLAND v 2nd PAUL MAGUIRE. Paul is first out the blocks with a 7-2 lead, but the crowd pleaser Anthony levels with a 7-4 reply to force a decider. Ant commanded firm control leading 6-3 guaranteeing 4 match points, but with good battling from Maguire and 2 doubles from nervous Boland (1 on the deciding match point) victory is handed to the policeman in what can only be described as daylight robbery. This was an exact replica of Wimbledon as 2nd beats 8th in the final agian (cue Asian syndicate match fixing investigation). Paul is crowned US Open champ as Nick Allen again gives an electrifying performance in presenting the prizes to the finalists.

So all that was left was for the final leader board to be worked out to see who played in which event and against who, with those missing out hoping for a lucky call up.

Dudley wins top spot but by no means can be crowned ATP GRAND SLAM OF TENNIS HANDICAP CHAMPION yet!! Paul cruises to 2nd after 3 brilliant performances, Rhiannion our 1st ever GS champion clings on to 3rd and Anthony, the only top 4 finisher not to win a slam, breaks Emmanuel’s heart to pip him to 4th to battle for trophy and £50 prize next Sunday.

Tim finishes 6th behind Emman and Nick Addo and Nick Allen complete the top 8 to battle for 5th place next Sunday, Hazel, Ajaya, Richard and Chris must wait and see if they get a 2nd chance.

Here are how next Sundays Semi Finals will be played out in best of 7 tie break sets

CHAMPION DRAW

1ST DUDLEY WRIGHT v 4TH ANTHONY BOLAND

2ND PAUL MAGUIRE v 3RD RHIANNON ROBINSON

5TH PLACED DRAW

5TH EMMANUEL OMODENI v 8TH NICK ALLEN

6TH TIM BOLAND v 7TH NICK ADDO

As with professional tournaments, players have to withdraw with injuries or other commitments such as contracted TV appearances, well this ATP final is no different. Unfortunately both Paul and Rhiannon are unavailable to compete on Sunday, so Emman and Tim get elevated to the main event. Hazel also couldn’t accept but Ajaya and Richard could accept their lucky invite into the 5th placed draw, these players have every right now to cause some upsets and take their chance.

So here is the new revised draws

CHAMPION DRAW

1ST DUDLEY WRIGHT -3 v 6TH TIM BOLAND -1

4TH ANTHONY BOLAND -1 v 5TH EMMANUEL OMODENI +1

5th PLACED DRAW

7TH NICK ADDO -1 v 11TH RICHARD WOODSTOCK +2

8TH NICK ALLEN -1 V 10TH AJAYA GHOSH +3

Sundays Semi’s at 2pm will be best of 7 (1st to 4) tb sets, losing semi finalists will then be in a play off also best of 7. The 5th placed final also is the best of 7 with the CHAMPIONS FINAL being the best of 9 (1st to 5) sets to crown the WINNER. Each player will leave the day with an ATP final placed certificate ranging from 1st to 8th.

For those unlucky ones just missing out, it would be great to see your support on the day for our finale and competitors please invite supporters to watch and enjoy the array of biscuits and hot drinks on offer.

It’s been a terriffic series of events so far, so a big thank you to the 17 that played, I’ve really enjoyed watching and organising and cannot wait for Sunday spectacular finale to crown our inaugural Grand slam of tennis champion and to write the final review.

*In the event of postponement for foul weather, for any reason, then the original line ups will have 1st invite again for the rearranged date (whatever it will be)*

DUE TO PAST WEEKS SNOW FALL, US OPEN IS NEXT SUNDAY 3RD FEBRUARY 2PM, FOLLOWED BY ATP FINALS ON SUNDAY 10TH FEBRUARY, LAST CHANCE TO QUALIFY… READ BELOW POST FOR ALL THE KEY DETAILS, ENTER NOW…12 SPOTS FREE.

This past Sunday before the snow fell, we held the 3rd Grand Slam of 4 at Walsall Tennis Club, as 9 out of 16 competitors entered to force their way into the top four spots on the Grand Slam Leaderboard for a chance to compete for £50 prize on 10th of February at the ATP finals. It was another great day on the sunny courts of Wimbledon, this event saw our 1st guaranteed qualifier for the ATP Finals, we saw a finalist come from a lowly 8th position finish in group to steal big ranking points and we witnessed a shock winner perform out his skin (wasn’t a shock to him though). Keep reading to see how everyone fared in this Handicapped Singles event and to find out more details of the ATP finals that will follow the crucial 4th Grand Slam.. the US Open being held on the 27th Jan.

So we had 2 new faces enter the competition, in the field of 9 which included 2 former Grand Slam Winners, Rhiannon and Dudley searching for more glory, however with such a fair and open format a brand new champion was always a likely outcome with all competitors knowing they need to be on top form and hold 100% focus for 100% of the time. Here’s how they all fared in the group stage and the handicaps they played off in the race to 7 point tiebreaks! Only 1 player would miss out on the group stage but higher placing gives more ranking points once eliminated. Players receive 16 points for Champion, 13 for 2nd, 10 for 3rd, 7 for 4th, 5 for 5th, 4 for 6th, 3 for 7th, 2 for 8th and 1 for 9th.

RHIANNON ROBINSON +2 WON 4/8 40 POINTS 6TH on more points than Nick

RICHARD WOODSTOCK +2 WON 4/8 48 POINTS 5TH on more points than Rhiannon and Nick

EMMANUEL OMODENI +2 WON 5/8 52 POINTS 2ND on more points than Anthony and Dudley

AJAYA GHOSH +2 WON 0/8 32 POINTS 9TH

ANTHONY BOLAND -1 WON 5/8 48 POINTS 4TH on less points than Dudley and Emmanuel

TIM BOLAND -1 WON 6/8 48 POINTS 1ST

NICK ADDO -1 WON 2/8 46 POINTS 8TH

NICK ALLEN -1 WON 4/8 38 POINTS 7TH on less points than Richard and Rhiannon

DUDLEY WRIGHT -3 WON 5/8 51 POINTS 3RD on more points than Anthony

So a truly tight group, with Wins being more important than total points won unless tied, as many of the above were, so onto the intriguing Knockout stages…. handicaps stay the same in best of 3 (1st to 7 point tie break) sets.

So a very youthful final was in store for the watching crowd including on duty PC Paul waiting to see if he could remain in top 4 after this event.

FINAL

8TH NICK v 2ND EMMANUEL He said early on in the day he was going to win and the boy did just that, taking a straight forward 7-3 7-3 victory for Emmanuel. Nick just couldn’t fetch the handicap back in time but gains a vital 13 points in his 1st event meaning another final appearance could be enough to make finals. Champion Emmanuel take 16 to take his total to 21 and put him 3rd in Leader board and give him free entry into US Open.

Here’s the latest standings showing Dudley now Qualified and any of the top 10 could pinch a top 4 place in the crucial US OPEN on 27th Jan. Winner getting Free entry to ATP finals
On the 10th Feb ATP finals will see 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd in Semi’s being the best of 7 tie breaks, Final will be best of 9 tie breaks! Winner =£50
BREAKING NEWS… TOP 8 players will appear on ATP FINALS card.

Also on finals day 5th place v 8th place and 6th place v 7th place …..semi’s and finals best of 7 tie breaks! Winner = £10
Both competitions will see a 3rd place play off and 7th place play off respectively, all top 8 finalists will gain GRAND SLAM Certificates with final placing! What an ace competition so far but it’s only just begun! Who’s your money on, plenty to still to play for, Make sure you secure your US OPEN place on 27th January 2pm start.

Wow, the Australian was competitive but the French Open this past Sunday was another level, so many close matches. Even though the two form players reached the finals they were both within 1 or 2 points of being eliminated in both the Quarters and Semi finals, as every knock out match went a deciding tie break set.

This was the second tournament to grab between 1 and 16 ranking points for the competitors in their bid to reach the knockout tournament at the ATP finals in February for the chance of becoming the FIRST EVER WINTER GRAND SLAM HANDICAP SINGLES CHAMPION and taking the £50 CASH PRIZE. We had another 4 new faces enter the 2nd of 4 Grand Slams, the French Open, making it a bigger field of 11 vying to qualify for a last 8 knockout draw after a gruelling round robin tournament!

After the only competing lady, Rhiannon winning the Australian, it looked doubly worse for the men when WTC singles champ Hazel entered to take on 8 fearful males. Here’s how they all fared in the group stage and the handicaps they played off in the race to 7 points tiebreaks!

RHIANNON ROBINSON +2 WON 6/10 61 POINTS 4TH

RICHARD WOODSTOCK +2 WON 4/10 56 POINTS 8TH

CHRIS MAGUIRE +1 WON 5/10 51 POINTS 7TH on less points than Dave and Nick

SIMON BELCHER 0 WON 2/10 44 POINTS 10TH

ROB SOUSTER 0 WON 3/10 48 POINTS 9TH

NICK ALLEN -1 WON 5/10 56 POINTS 5TH on more points than Dave and Chris

ANTHONY BOLAND -1 WON 0/10 32 POINTS 11TH

DAVE TWIST -2 WON 5/10 54 POINTS 6TH on less points than Nick

DUDLEY WRIGHT -3 WON 9/10 66 POINTS 1ST on more points than Hazel

PAUL MAGUIRE -3 WON 7/10 64 POINTS 3RD

HAZEL RICHARDS -3 WON 9/10 64 POINTS 2ND on less points than Dudley

So Top 8 qualify after Hazel beat Dudley 7-3 in battle of undeafeated, in 9th match, before losing 7-1 to 3rd Place Paul to surrender top spot back to Dudley. It’s fair to say all Quarter Finalists will feel they could have gone even further, what a tournament!

What a final, Dudley edged 1st set with some generous line calls by Hazel, Hazel looks down and out but pulls out amazing winners to save 4 match points to take the 2nd set to force a decider, for the watching crowd. Dudley takes the early advantage and goes 4-2 up before the unimagineable happens, one of Hazel’s fans cuts the floodlight wires forcing the lights to go out(not really, but the lights did trip at the most inconvenient time). The players had a good 7-8 minute wait before the lights problem was rectified, Hazel came inside and Dudley stayed out focusing. Just 4 more points were played with Dudley winning 3 to take the French Open title presented by the nearly man Nick Allen.

Here are the current standings with just the Wimbledon and US Opens to play. Dudley joins Rhiannon at top, Paul consolidates 3rd but moves closer to leaders and Hazel and Tim are tied for 4th after being runner up in their only events. Nick Allen is hovering in 6th waiting to pounce, and a Grand Slam win from anyone will put them right in the mix for the ATP finals!

See you on Jan 13th for WIMBLEDON, Anthony already entered and Dudley gets free wildcard for his French success!

In the meantime some light Christmas relief in the Turkey Tennis 2012 Mixed Doubles tournament check it out down below on previous post!

A Fantastic afternoons tennis was had today in a rare competitive singles tournament in the First Open, of the First ever Grand slam of Handicap singles Tennis at Walsall Tennis Club. Competitors are invited to play in 4 Grand Slam events fighting for ranking points to be tallied up at the end to find the top 4 totals who will go on to compete for £50 cash prize and Grand slam champion title at the ATP finals in February.

Nine Men and just one lady fought out the inaugral Australian Open, each benefiting or being hampered by a handicap (according to their ability/experience) in each of the 9 round robin tie breaks they played, knowing the top 8 would advance to a straight knock out draw to fight for the big ranking points! Here’s what happened in the group stage and the handicaps they played off in the race to 7 points.

RHIANNON ROBINSON +2 WON 6/9 54 POINTS 3RD on beating Dudley

EMMANUEL OMEDINI +2 WON 5/9 54 POINTS 5TH as less wins than Rhiannon and Dudley

RICHARD WALTON 0 WON 0/9 26 POINTS 10TH

SIMON BELCHER 0 WON 3/9 46 POINTS 8TH

CHRIS MAGUIRE 0 WON 2/9 31 POINTS 9TH

TIM BOLAND -1 WON 8/9 62 POINTS 1ST

NICK ALLEN -1 WON 4/9 38 POINTS 7TH as less points than Anthony

ANTHONY BOLAND -2 WON 4/9 42 POINTS 6TH on more points than Nick

PAUL MAGUIRE -3 WON 7/9 58 POINTS 2ND

DUDLEY WRIGHT -3 WON 6/9 54 POINTS 4TH as lost to Rhiannon

These results meant that top 8 qualified for knock out tournament, however these positions above woulddetermine where losing quarter finalists and semi finalists would finish in relation to fellow losers. Knockout matches would be same handicaps and best of 3 first to 7 point tie breaks with handicaps being used in every set.

THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN TITLE AND 16 Ranking Points and FREE Entry into FRENCH OPEN goes to

RHIANNON ROBINSON!

Most competitors had a great time and the handicaps are there to give every possibility for close games and unpredictable results, but they can’t account for players being in top form or being totally out of sorts, or how players can react to coping with the handicaps given in pressure situations, I think the handicaps were very accurate, but may (only may consider tinkering 3 players should they enter another grand slam).

Remember, you can still easily qualify for the ATP finals even if you didn’t enter the Australian Open

Floodlit Final Action

FRENCH OPEN 1PM Sunday December 9th

WIMBLEDON 1PM Sunday January 13th

US OPEN 2PM Sunday January 27th

ATP FINALS top 4 only Sunday February 10th 12PM

Already entered for FRENCH OPEN are Rhiannon Robinson, Anthony Boland, Richard Woodstock and Ryan Brazier (feeling a -5 at least coming on) so a maximum of 8 places remaining, be quick to enter!!

So here is the current ATP RANKINGS

1st Rhiannon 16

2nd Tim 13

3rd Paul 10

4th Dudley 7

———————-

Australian Open Winner Rhiannon

Runner Up Tim Boland with Nick Allen

5th Emmanuel 5

6th Anthony 4

7th Nick 3

8th Simon 2

9th Chris 1

9th Richard 1

2 Weeks until French Open, and well done Rhiannon Robinson- one for the pink team!

Walsall head Coach and tournament organiser Clayton Edge teamed with Slovakian student Simona Pirova last Sunday 11th March to share the £100 winners prize, in the Birmingham Road tennis Club’s Centenary Mixed Open event. Players from Edgbaston Archery, Halesowen, Walsall, Bewdley, Stoke and Coventry made the strong field of 11 pairs!

Play started at 10am, with a gruelling 1o match round robin event to determine the top 8 pairs to compete in the quarter final 1 set knockout tournament! The matches consisted of 4 games each worth one point and a tiebreak worth 2 points, meaning the group games could be 6-0, 5-1, 4-2 or 3-3 in results! At around 3.30pm the players breaked for a superb buffet provided by Ellie, whilst the scores were all added up and the quarter final draws were determined.

1st Place were Clayton and Simona with 8 wins and 2 draws,

2nd Place were another Walsall pairing Max Brazier and Caroline Harding also undefeated with 4 draws

3rd Place great performance from Halesowen’s Jack Henfield and Hannah Didlock

The 22 players before play commenced

4th Place Yet another great Walsall standing from Ryan Brazier and Hazel Richards meaning 3 Walsall pairs in top 4

5th Place were Top established pairing from Edgbaston, Richard Broadhead and Cath Lloyd

6th Place was Rich Allen superb player from Coventry due to play with former Wimbledon player, however because of illness she couldn’t play but Rich played with Walsall’s very own ladies C team captain Rhiannon Robinson and did superbly in her 1st ever open tournament!

7th Place were a very strong pairing and shows quality of the tournament that they only came in 7th, Andy Hibbel and Di Harvey, last years semi finalists from Florence in Stoke.

8th Place claiming last knockout spot were Joe Adcock and Wendy Brooks from Halesowen

After the delicious food the Quarters began,

QF 1 Clayton and Simona (1) won 6-2 to Joe and Wendy (8)

QF 2 Ryan and Hazel (4) lost 4-6 to Richard and Cath (5)

QF 3 Jack and Hannah (3) lost 4-6 to Richard and Rhiannon (6)

QF 4 Max and Caroline (2) lost 3-6 to Andy and Di (7)

Wow 3 of top 4 got knocked out, again showing how tight all of the day’s matches were and the level of competition on show. Into the Semi finals then were the last 4 pairs were all guaranteed prizemoney. We still had 1 and half Walsall pairs left… Well done Rhiannon!

SF 1 Clayton and Simona (1) won 6-3 to Richard and Cath (5)

SF 2 Richard and Rhiannon (6) lost 4-6 to Andy and Di (7)

Gallant finalists Andy and Di

Two very hard fought semi finals, leaving us with group winners Walsall pair Clayton and Simona against, (no shock to me) 7th placed Andy Hibbel and Di Harvey, as these 4 players entered into their 8th hour of battle!

The hardened crowd saw the home pair defeat the North Staffordshire pair 6-3 in fading light to take 1st prize leaving the runners up with a nice £60 to take home up the M6.

It was a fabulous day with terrific sunshine throughout, Massive Thanks to Dave Twist for excellently overseeing the smooth running of the tournament all day and to his Wife Sue, for offering her cooking services keeping the players well stocked up on sausage and bacon baps! Also thanks for the many hours spent preparing the buffet to Ellie, despite feeling ill all week, and to our ever present, hard working Chairman Brian McBride for assisting and presenting throughout the day!

We will do it all again in 2013, watch this space for more Centenary celebrations at Walsall Tennis Club throughout the year!

A massive Thank You to all my family and friends (old and new) who attended the 4 Cardio sessions on the 28th December, nearly 40 folks burning calories galore, enjoying ‘Heart Pumping Fitness’ to upbeat loud tunes using Rackets and Balls! So good was the feedback, that I started immediately with Cardio sessions the very next night and have now at time of press completed 7 cardio sessions for non, new and experienced tennis players looking to build stamina and burn 100′s of calories. The sessions are now polished to top notch standards and will always be varied, oh and my voice is back now too!

I’m excited to let you know I’m extending my Launch plans of 3 weekly cardio sessions to 5 weekly cardio sessions due to the enthusiasm of everybody attending the launch. These sessions start tonight Tuesday 3rd January 8.30pm, so please Share this post with all your friends and family, and remember Everyone can have their first Cardio Tennis experience for FREE, and it’s for ANYONE… challenge your friends who tell you they hate Tennis.. let them come then they will thank you for converting them find out more here http://ontheedgetennis.co.uk/cardio-tennis/.

To find out when the Cardio Tennis sessions are please look here http://ontheedgetennis.co.uk/group-coaching/ and to get real fitness results out of them try to get to 2 to 3 sessions per week, as this programme grows and grows I will keep adding more sessions in, so please keep reminding me of your ideal slots!

Thanks once again and please spread the word, See you on the Courts!!!!!

Well done to Ryan Brazier, Beating a gutsy Jamal Downie 10-7 in the final, after losing to Jamal in the Round Robin stage, well done to all competitors in tough, slightly icy conditions after a 5 minute hail storm left the courts looking like a Slush puppy factory with no walls (didn’t taste the same either.

2o brave folks played on Sunday 11th December in mostly rainy conditions, all 10 pairs had handicaps, some positive, some negative according to ability, teams had free points to use at any time in a match.. called Turkeys, after 9 Round Robin rounds of 1st to 12 points played to Xmas songs and many wearing Santa Hats, 4 pairs made the soggy semi’s, Estelle Rolinson, sister in law to me and my partner for the day kindly made up the numbers after never playing tennis before, let alone a tournament lost out to bright prospect Jamal Downie and new member Slovakian Superstar Simona Pinova 12-8, whilst Mens Doubles champ Dave Twist and partner Rhiannon Robinson recovered from the xmas party the night before to thrash Matthew Gough and Anita England 12-1 in the second semi.

Jamal and Simona were the deserved, eventual winners after a hard afternoon’s fun, competetive tennis, all then enjoyed hot turkey and stuffing baps, mince pies and warm mulled wine all served perfectly by Ellie, The balls have now dried out at time of press!